


Cover Story

by natashasbanner



Series: Prompts [40]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Established Relationship, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-26
Updated: 2018-10-26
Packaged: 2019-07-21 02:02:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,199
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16150217
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/natashasbanner/pseuds/natashasbanner
Summary: Bruce and Natasha relationship becomes public knowledge and gossip magazines can't get enough. They're annoyed by all the attention, but they find their own way to deal with it.AUFrom the prompt: i heard you were looking for brucenat prompts so what about brucenat + navigating a relationship in the public eye?





	Cover Story

**Author's Note:**

> I love this one. It's one of my faves. The Avengers as celebrities is something I've always wanted to explore and this was a fun way to get my feet wet. Please enjoy :)

“You lovebirds are famous,” Tony announced as he sauntered into the living room, waving a magazine in each hand.   
  
Bruce and Natasha looked up from their game of chess and exchanged a glance before looking over at Tony. They were both thinking the same thing. What now?   
  
Tony chuckled at the matching confused looks they were shooting him as he jumped over the back of the couch and landed next to Bruce. Natasha stood up from her seat on the floor on the other side of the coffee table to sit on the arm of the couch next to Bruce.   
  
“You guys really don’t know?” Tony questioned.   
  
“Know what?” Bruce asked patiently, dreading whatever news had Tony grinning like that.   
  
“Out with it Stark,” Natasha demanded. She had no patience for his games.   
  
“You’re no fun,” he grumbled before passing a magazine to each of them.   
  
“What is this?” Bruce asked already staring at the glossy magazine cover.   
  
“That is you and Agent Killjoy here holding hands like lovesick teenagers.”   
  
“I can see that. Why are there pictures of us on the cover of a magazine?”   
  
Tony shrugged. “Your guess is as good as mine. I guess they’re excited to finally have some pictures of the two of you, together no less. It’s all very scandalous.”   
  
He let out a giggle and snatched the gossip rag out of Bruce’s hands to flip through the pages. He stopped on a page with several pictures of them from the same day under the title: “Hulk Widow Romance?”   
  
“You two make such a cute couple,” he gushed, clutching the pages to his chest.   
  
“I didn’t even see anyone following us,” Natasha muttered to herself as she flipped through the pages of her own magazine forcefully.   
  
Bruce reached up to pat her knee, he hadn’t been paying attention to much else that day either. They were usually more careful, especially since the media had taken an interest in capturing the Avengers doing “normal” things. There were several pictures of Thor and Steve eating from one of the various food trucks around the city, a handful of Clint at his favorite coffee shop, and Tony who was swarmed by paparazzi anytime he stepped out of the tower. The best they were able to capture where Bruce and Natasha were concerned was a blurred image of red hair or the back of Bruce’s head.   
“Those vultures are going to eat this up,” Tony commented with another short giggle.   
  
Bruce sighed and looked up at Natasha, trying to gauge how she was taking the unexpected exposure. She was no stranger to the media’s scrutiny, but in those instances she’d had some measure of control. That was not the case this time around and Bruce wasn’t sure would take the invasion of privacy too kindly.   
  
Natasha met Bruce’s eyes and shrugged. She tossed the magazine at Tony and wrapped her fingers around his hand that was still resting on her knee.   
  
“We’ll figure it out.”   


* * *

And that’s what they did. When they went out, they dodged photographers when they could and humored the fans that bravely approached them on the street. It was frustrating, not being able to take two steps out of the Tower without being trailed by photographers, and after a few weeks they were over it.   
  
It was a sunny morning and Bruce and Natasha sat outside their favorite cafe. The small shop was off the beaten path and they were enjoying the relative privacy it afforded them.   
  
“Why don’t you take off the hood,” Bruce suggested with a chuckle as he took a sip of his latte.   
  
“Not a chance,” Natasha grumbled breaking a piece off the muffin in front of her.   
  
“At least get rid of the sunglasses,” he begged.   
  
Natasha had taken to wearing a baggy hoodie with the hood hiding her hair and huge sunglasses whenever they went out to deter the photographers. It never worked, a fact Bruce pointed out every time she donned the ridiculous outfit, but she did it anyways.   
  
Natasha spit her tongue out before taking a sip from her coffee. Bruce grinned and reached across the table to steal a piece of her muffin, but she slapped his hand away before he could grab more than a crumb.   
  
“Get your own, Banner,” she warned.   
  
“Take off the hoodie,” he countered, his hand inching across the table.   
  
“This is your last warning, Bruce.”   
  
Bruce let out a long sigh and leaned back in his chair. He made a show of looking all around them for lurking photographers or fans before scooting his chair around the table right next to hers. He threw his arm over the back of her chair and used his free hand to reach for the strings knotted at her chin.   
  
“What are you doing?” she asked, trying to lean away from his hand, but the arm around her held her in place.   
  
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said innocently as he successfully undid the knot and pulled the hood off her head.   
  
Natasha scowled at him, but didn’t try to stop him when he reached for her sunglasses.   
  
“Please don’t break my fingers,” he begged before gently pulling the shades from her face. “There she is,” Bruce exclaimed dramatically with a soft smile.   
  
“Happy?” she asked keeping her head down as she broke off another piece of her muffin.   
  
“Very,” he answered smugly, leaning in the press a kiss to her cheek.   
  
The unmistakable shutter of a camera sounded and they both looked down the sidewalk to see three cameras pointed at them. Natasha turned to pin Bruce with a look that screamed “I told you so”. She started to put the sunglasses back on but Bruce’s hands stopped her. The camera shutters increased ten fold.   
  
“Let’s head back,” she suggested, coffee already in hand.   
  
“No,” Bruce argued. “We’ve been cooped up in the tower for weeks now. They’ll get bored eventually.”   
  
Natasha didn’t look convinced, but she set her coffee back down and settled against Bruce’s arm that was still thrown over the back of her chair.   
  
“Also, Tony told me if you flip them off they can’t use the pictures.”   
  
A huge grin spread over Natasha’s face and before Bruce had a chance to react, her lips were pressed to his in a searing kiss. When Natasha pulled away he was breathless and out of the corner of his eye he saw her flipping the camera’s the bird.   
  
“See, not so bad huh?”   
  
“It’s bearable,” she conceded, leaning back in her chair.   
  
“Can I have a piece of muffin now?”   
  
Natasha rolled her eyes playfully, but broke off a piece of the muffin and stuffed it into Bruce’s mouth, only managing to get a few crumbs actually in his mouth. Neither of them noticed the flashes or shutters.   
  
Bruce laughed and brushed the muffin bits from his shirt.   
  
“Next time I’ll get my own muffin.”   
  
“Damn straight.”   
  
The pictures of Natasha stuffing the muffin in his face ended up on the cover of every magazine the next day with the caption “Don’t mess with the Black Widow”.   
  
Tony and Natasha got a real kick out of that.   



End file.
